Gulfport Man Sentenced to 40 Years After Downloading Child Pornography at Vicksburg Casino

June 30, 2017

Today, Attorney General Jim Hood announced that a Gulfport man is going to prison for one count of child exploitation.

Russell Haley, 67, pled guilty in an open plea Friday in Warren County Circuit Court to one count of child exploitation. Judge James Chaney sentenced Haley to 40 years in prison with 10 to serve and 30 suspended. He was ordered to pay a $50,000 fine, in addition to $1,000 to the Mississippi Children’s Trust Fund and another $1,000 to the Mississippi Crime Victim Compensation Fund. Haley must also register as a sex offender upon his release from prison and is banned from the premises of any casino, which is where he was located when downloading the child pornography.

Haley was arrested in August 2015 at the Diamond Jacks Casino in Vicksburg following a joint investigation by the Attorney General’s Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force, Mississippi Gaming Commissions, Louisiana State Police Special Victims Unit, Louisiana State Police Gaming Detectives, and Warren County Sheriff’s Office. The investigation uncovered that Haley utilized the free Wi-Fi at casino hotels throughout Mississippi and Louisiana to download hundreds of child sexual abuse images. He did this for several months, using aliases when checking into the hotel to mask his identity.

“This man thought he could hide, but our investigators and those with the assisting agencies work every day to be sure child predators are not safe to commit these crimes in our state,” said General Hood. “I am proud of the partnership our ICAC Task Force has with agencies across the state, and their success is clear when working together on cases like this.”

Haley will be transferred from the Warren County Jail to the Mississippi Department of Corrections.

This case was prosecuted by Special Assistant Attorney General Brandon Ogburn of the Attorney General’s Cyber Crime Unit.